molehills

Coming here for the support of fellow December 2023 ROC filers.

 
Timeline:

Service Center: TSC

Filed Dec. 8, 2023

NOA Dec. 11, 2023

Biometrics Waived/Reused: December 15, 2023

5 minutes ago, midsummer said:

Thank you so much. The letter arrived on the day I was about to contact "Emma"

 

Interview scheduled for tomorrow. I'm nervous and hope I have everything they've asked for but also excited to be at this stage.

You'll do great, good luck! 

On 3/1/2022 at 12:24 AM, JohnNatalie2020 said:

Interview scheduled today!!

Submission received August 23rd 2021.

Biometrics: November 11th 2021

”Interview has been scheduled“ February 28th 2022.

 

How do I contact a live agent to find out my interview date and time? I’ve heard it takes a week or so to receive the letter and I’m just eager/excite to find out the date!

TY!❤️

It's been explained elsewhere in this thread. Just go back a few pages.

7 hours ago, Tiffany A said:

Hey all! We sent our I-485, I-765 and I-131! Timeline so far….

2/9- Sent (Chicago lockbox)

2/10- Arrived

2/12- Notice Date

2/19- Biometrics Appointment Notice

3/14- Biometrics appointment 

 

Can anyone tell me what is to be expected now? Also, we tried getting a social for my husband when he arrived on K-1. They denied us and said we had to apply during the AOS application. My question is when should we expect a social security number for him? I can’t file my taxes until I have one since I’m filing married. 

 

 

If there's not a Feb. thread, I'd encourage you to make one or post in the existing one so that you may garner information from your fellow Feb. filers, it also helps keep threads clean.

Your local FO is going to have a big impact on your timeline for AOS. You can look up the location on https://www.uscis.gov/about-us/find-a-uscis-office/field-offices if you don't know where your case will be processed. It seems to be the norm (at least from what I've seen) is that folks are going straight to greencard approval, so the EAD/AP become void after that. Take the timelines with a grain of salt, however.

If you did not check the box on the I485 or EAD apps for getting a SSN with your application, you will have to wait until your Greencard issuance (or EAD, I think will work?) to go to your local SSA office and get a number/new SSN card. I am under the impression the SSA is open to appointment only, so no walk-ins.

There was a thread regarding taxes recently: 

If you are anticipating paying taxes (no refund), an extension will need to be filed with the IRS. There were a few other nuances with ITIN and other things that you can read.

We were in/are in a similar situation. As Steve said above, our I94 expired due to a clerical error at the SSA and DHS couldn't verify in time. We had already sent all our AOS paperwork before we knew the I94 was going to expire, so getting a SSN concurrent with greencard approval/EAD approval was out. 

That being said, my husband now has his greencard, we called our local office to get an appointment (Feb 14), and somehow they had an appointment available on Feb. 22, yesterday. We applied again and the clerk said it should be 5-7 days to get the SSN in the mail, and said that they've been actually sending them faster than that. 

Hopefully your local SSA office is on a similar path. I will note that the office is still closed to the public, so you have to call beforehand and make an appointment. The security guard turned away several people in the span of us waiting because they didn't have appointments.

Just now, Wuozopo said:

Do you remember the government has paid out three rebates? Did you get money from the government three times?

Are you talking about the stimulus payments? I know I got those, would my husband (the immigrant/LPR) be eligible for those even though he wasn't in the US until June 2021?

1 minute ago, Wuozopo said:

Just file the extension if the SSN doesn’t come through in the nick of time. Then you can still get the $1400 for your wife’s share of the third rebate if she has the SSN by October 15. It’s a credit on the 2021 return so $1400 more in refund to you.

Wait what rebate? 

8 minutes ago, Wuozopo said:

Taxes have a deadline. If you don’t pay the IRS on time you get assessed a penalty that accrues from the filing deadline. It’s like a late fee/ interest your credit card charges if you don’t pay the bill on time. But if there is nothing you owe to the IRS, then no penalty/interest is assessed for filing late. You’re still late, but it doesn’t cost you any extra money. The proper way to do it is file for an extension, but you get by okay as long as you don’t owe them. 
 

Concerning the SSN. Some say they were able to get an appointment by giving the reason—-I need it to file taxes!

That makes a lot of sense the way you framed it. 

When we did our appt. back in June, we were able to schedule, so our office was good on that part, but just messed the form.

1 minute ago, HappyHappyJoyJoy said:

When did you guys get married?  I’m assuming you were NOT allowed to file single due to the date or marriage?  Since we married prior to 12/31/2021, I have no choice right now but to file MFS or MFJ (best option / tax refund).  

Married July 7. 2021. Once you're married, you can't file as a single person. We're opting for MFJ for the tax benefits folks outlined in this thread. It's a massive difference. Almost makes up for one spouse not working, almost.

37 minutes ago, iwannaplay54 said:

We filed in August our first year after getting married for this very reason.

A little known fact:  You have three years to file IF you don’t owe any money (are due a refund) and there is no penalty (and) you get your refund anyway.

You can also file an extension, but since we were owed money we didnt worry about it.

So:  If you are due a refund, just wait to file

This is exactly what I wanted to hear. Thank you.

1 hour ago, HappyHappyJoyJoy said:

Wait, are you saying no need for an extension if I can “estimate” that I am going to be due a refund?  I believe I will owe for state (most likely the case) and my federal will offset the owed which will equate to me receiving a refund.  But, what I am saying is, I can’t even file at this point as married since my spouse doesn’t have a SSN at the moment and she will not receive one by the normal tax deadline (04/22).  Wouldn’t I still need to request an extension since I will be late? 

 

Yes, I do not recommend the ITIN from the response we got from someone we know.  Is your spouse’s SSN coming out before April is likely?  What is your situation? 

He arrived on a K1 in June of last year, didn't have enough time to get the SSN because of expired I94.

We are anticipating his greencard arriving today via USPS, and will be calling the SSA to get an appointment so they can issue him a new SSN. On their website they say up to 2 weeks, I'm thinking a month and a half would be lucky, extra lucky if before tax day. I think the SSA is still closed to everyone expect emergency appts. 

As far as the extension goes, I'm not a tax expert or anything, but skimmed through some things put out by H and R Block (who I'll be filing with)  https://www.hrblock.com/tax-center/irs/audits-and-tax-notices/missed-the-tax-deadline/ . 

I've seen some similar things on reddit as well, but I've been trying to do more thorough research because it seems pretty serious to not file taxes, and you know, strangers on the internet giving advice. 

I understand that an extension is only applicable if you owe taxes, and when filing that extension, you have to pay 10%(?) of what is owed at the time of extension filing.

If you expect a refund, I understand that no penalty exists for filing late, but it's obviously in your best interest to file and get the monies due to you. I *think* I saw something saying that the IRS will honor refunds for up to 3 years. This might be our scenario since, as you already said, the ITIN is a complicated mess, but I'm hoping we can get my spouse a SSN before April (lol).

11 hours ago, Blkbam said:

Had our interview today in Philadelphia and got approved! The whole interview lasted no more than 20 minutes.

 

Questions asked in no particular order:

• (beneficiary) Who came to your wedding?
• Do you have assets together?
• Did you take any trips together, if so where?
• What did you do on your wedding day?
• How did you meet?
• (citizen) How did you propose?
• Where did you see each other first?
• What did you do together when you meet?
• (beneficiary) What is your address?
• (citizen) Do you work? What do you do?
• Do you have any additional proof to supply?
• (beneficiary) When did you arrive in the country?
• (citizen) What is your wife's birthday?
• (beneficiary) When is your husband's birthday?
• Do you celebrate holidays together?
• What did you give each other for Christmas?
• What did you do on Christmas?
• (beneficiary) What's your favorite American dish?
• (citizen) What's your favorite Indonesian dish?
• What do you like to do together?

Congrats! We were in Philly last week and had a similar experiance, and our Greencard is supposed to arrive today. So hopefully your process is similar.

11 hours ago, TYosemite said:

Hey guys, I got my notice for my I-485 interview for March 1st & after reading through the recommended evidence for ongoing relationship I started to panic a bit. 
 

Due to SSA messing me around, I never got my SSN so most things I could never get.

So far aside from photos from our wedding ceremony in California (we had our actual wedding a few months before this at the courthouse to stay within the 90 days)… I’ve been able to be added as an authorized user to my husbands credit card & we have a Sam’s club membership together. 

He’s going to be talking to his work on Monday about a possible loop hole they may have managed to find to get me on his health insurance (it’s not open enrolment) so that’s a possibility! 
Our lease isn’t due for renewal until after the appointment date so I cant be added to that in time to use it as evidence either.
 

Is there any other ideas you guys have that I could use? Or do you think these things will be enough? 
 

I did check off for USCIS to apply for SSN for me due to not being able to get one in time, so I’m hoping they’d be understanding that most things require an SSN to be added to (eg bank accounts, car insurance, bills etc) 

 

We never received a SSN either. We took what we could: 1 credit card statement with both names on account, our Xfinity bill with both names, health insurance info with both names, photos, and that's it. 

Our IO never even looked at any evidence  though he did stress that having everything for removal of conditions is much more important. Good luck and congrats on the interview!

1 hour ago, Waiting_4Ever said:

Same here as you. I wonder how long it takes to receive the interview notice after online notification...

It took us about 10 days to get the letter. You can ask via emma for the date, nothing else. Just ask for live agent and then green card when prompted. 

19 hours ago, KateD said:

My fiancé interviewed for his SSN 15 days after his arrival in the US on a K-1 visa. Everything at the interview went fine and the SSN official said he would get the approval in the mail in 2 weeks and the SSN card in a month. A month came and went and we thought maybe there was a delay due to the holidays. After the holidays, we checked in with our local SSN office and they informed us that Dept. of Homeland Security found an error on our application and it was still pending. SSN office couldn't say what the error was, but they would check and get back to us. After a week of calls with our local SSN office, we were told the error was fixed (SSN office said they were never informed what the error was) and we would be receiving the letter of approval in 2 weeks.

 

Well, another two weeks went by and we never received the letter. I called the SSN local office and it was back to the story of there was an error on our application (again couldn't say what said error was) and because the K-1 visa was about to expire in a couple of weeks, my fiancé would not receive a SSN. The SSN office informed us we could reapply once my fiancé's visa was renewed or extended.

 

I am pretty confident there was no error on his SSN application/supporting documents (we checked everything over multiple times and the SSN officer we interviewed with also confirmed that the SSN application was filled out correctly and  matched the supporting documents). I'm not sure what we could have done differently except checked in earlier when we didn't receive our letter within 2 weeks, but not sure it would have made a difference anyways.

 

My questions are:

1. Has anyone else experienced this particular issue? Does this happen frequently? (From reading here on VJ, I know many people have issues arise when dealing with the SSA)

2.  Any ideas what the error could be that Dept. of Homeland Security was referring to? Just wondering if this issue will pop-up again when he reapplies. 

3.  From everything that I have read, it seems he will have to wait for his EAD/AP to reapply for his SSN (contrary to what the local SSN officer said) but I wanted to confirm.

 

Thanks for any insights,

 

KateD

Same thing happened to us, they gave us a run around by saying his name was incorrectly put on the application, it expired, so now we're getting the SSN with the greencard.

Verbal approval -- We passed!  

IO said 3-6 weeks for greencard to arrive in the mail, though.

 

6 hours ago, Jenn2020 said:

Congrats & good luck on your interview! 😊the processing time for my field office is at least 25 months. That’s why I was hoping the VJ timeline was somewhat accurate being that ours says we should get the EAD on Feb.26-March9. 

If it's any consolation, our field office was 10-12 months, and we got through on 6 months to interview. 

I hope yours moves quickly. I can't imagine over 2 years in this process. But I think if it goes that long to get your green card, you can go right to the 10year. 

On 2/4/2022 at 6:02 PM, Jenn2020 said:

For those who have received their EAD/AP, would you say the VJ timeline to get adjudicated is accurate? 

According to VJ, our EAD should be adjudicated between Feb. 6-24. AP is Feb. 15-22. Only update for EAD was our biometrics in August, and AP has been quiet since submission.

I'm a little cautious with timelines these days just because anything can happen to throw off these dates, like the CO getting ill and being out. We've our AOS interview tomorrow, so I'm anticipating and hoping, frankly, that we just going straight to greencard.

On 1/28/2022 at 10:26 PM, OlgaA said:

Hi, everyone! We have got our interview date for AOS from K1 on February 22! 

Hope you all here good news soon too! 

Much congrats!

54 minutes ago, bomem said:

Guys, I am having my interview in a few days and I am a little confused about the way some of the information stated in the interview letter/mail about our documents. It asks to bring signed I-864 and supporting evidence "(unless already submitted)". We already submitted the form and its evidence in the initial package, that means we don't have to redo the form and bring in new evidence? 

 

And about bonafide marriage evidence, do we need bring in copies of the evidence we submitted AND new evidences? 

I don't think you'd have to bring things you already submitted to the interview, but I know I've seen folks say that USCIS didn't have the submitted x, so they asked for it at the interview. 

Personally, I'd feel comfortable with bringing a complete copy of everything submitted (+ the RFE docs/if applicable) and whatever you can scrape together for the evidence. 

1 hour ago, ghostinthemachine said:

Why are you so gatekeep-y about this thread lmao. There's plenty straight AOS peeps (including myself) lurking and occasionally posting in both. Way to alienate someone who was just asking a question.

There's several forums because the process is different. Mods/organizers recognized this and made them for a reason. 

It was a suggestion to ask the question in the forum that was made specifically tied to the visa you're adjusting from. 

6 hours ago, FayeAlexandra said:

Aware its mainly for K1 this is also an AOS forum. I adjusted status once I was in the US, when I was visiting my husband and decided to stay. Hence no medical on entry. 

OK thanks nothing to be excited about then

What Powerpuff said. 

14 hours ago, FayeAlexandra said:

Hi All, I received a I693 Deficiency notice in the mail today. My lawyer said it acts as a reminder book your medical once your interview is scheduled (mine has not been scheduled yet). He also said this means they have finished processing your case and you'll likely be scheduled for an interview soon? Anyone have any experience of getting an I693 and the time line until interview was scheduled?

I'm not sure what visa you're adjusting from, but this is the K1/K3 forum. Everyone in here had overseas medicals done which are good for 1 year, so the AOS medical should be waived.

22 hours ago, midsummer said:

I received a case update email on Friday: testing and interview! The email says an interview has been scheduled and to wait for the letter. No electronic copy on the portal or mention of the date yet. 

 

Congratulations to everyone who've been approved so far ❤️

You can request the interview date and time on USCIS's website via emma. Just say "live agent" then "greencard" when you're prompted. They won't give you the notice, just the date of the interview. I think ours took 7-10 business days to arrive by USPS.